Deuteronomy 18:15-22

18:15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you – from your fellow Israelites; ¹  you must listen to him. 18:16 This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ²  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.” 18:17 The Lord then said to me, “What they have said is good. 18:18 I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command. 18:19 I will personally hold responsible ³  anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet ⁴  speaks in my name.

18:20 “But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized ⁵  him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. 18:21 Now if you say to yourselves, ⁶  ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’ ⁷  – 18:22 whenever a prophet speaks in my ⁸  name and the prediction ⁹  is not fulfilled, ¹⁰  then I have ¹¹  not spoken it; ¹²  the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”

[18:15]  ¹ tc The MT expands here on the usual formula by adding “from among you” (cf. Deut 17:15; 18:18; Smr; a number of Greek texts). The expansion seems to be for the purpose of emphasis, i.e., the prophet to come must be not just from Israel but an Israelite by blood.

[18:16]  ² tn The Hebrew text uses the collective singular in this verse: “my God…lest I die.”

[18:19]  ³ tn Heb “will seek from him”; NAB “I myself will make him answer for it”; NRSV “will hold accountable.”

[18:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet mentioned in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:20]  ⁵ tn Or “commanded” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[18:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “in your heart.”

[18:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “know the word which the Lord has not spoken.” The issue here is not understanding the meaning of the message, but distinguishing a genuine prophetic word from a false one.

[18:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord’s.” See note on the word “his” in v. 5.

[18:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “the word,” but a predictive word is in view here. Cf. NAB “his oracle.”

[18:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “does not happen or come to pass.”

[18:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the Lord has.” See note on the word “his” in v. 5.

[18:22]  ¹² tn Heb “that is the word which the Lord has not spoken.”